Never Said Love
by PallaPlease
Summary: Kuzco, in an odd event that may or may not be related to an usurper to the throne (well, of course, why not?), is stranded...in the boondocks of South America.  [On Hold]
1. Part One | Introducing...

AN: ….I'm crazy! You didn't want to know that, but it's true! Anyway, all characters within are not my property. Though I reeeeeeeally wished I owned Kronk and Kuzco. Poor Kronk…my friend, codenamed SpazSailor, and I both want to destroy Yzma, painfully and slowly, for hurting our beloved Kronk. SpazS. doesn't like Kuzco as much as I, but, hey.   
  
WARNING: Original characters exist within. Llana and Chel are original characters. Their village is original. There.  
  
*  
Never Said Love  
*  
Part 1  
*  
Introducing…  
*  
  
"Llana, I need help!"  
  
Turning quickly, her black hair plastered to her tanned skin, the younger of the two sisters squinted through the heavy rain, throwing aside the large, heavy rock she'd been lifting. Slipping through the mud, her tunic and leggings soaked, their gaudy colors dark and gloomy in place of the former brightness. Her bare feet slapped the slick goop, sending the sludge up in a thick spray as she raced toward the fenced-in field they kept their late family's llamas inside of.  
  
Her sister clutched a handful of ropes, trying to hold the cluster of seven llamas, her arms straining while the animals pulled frantically. The animals were panicked, pupils enlargened and they were yanking back. 'Chel, what's wrong with them?" Llana cried, moving amongst the animals, attempting to placate them. "Wild…ungh…panthers in the field," Chel grunted, black eyes narrowed and small body-frame tense. Muttering a curse, Llana grabbed and ripped the ropes from her elder, and stronger, sister's hands. 'You're the only one they fear, Chel! I'll get the llamas into the hut!"  
  
Chel paused, then nodded grimly at the taller girl's words, turning on her sandaled heels and snatching up a glinting blade. "Be careful," she warned before vanishing into the fog and rain.  
  
  
  
Warily, he eyed the felines, lanky and deadly as they circled around him, guttural growls rumbling up from their glinting throats. A deep chilled feeling shivered throughout his body. Silent aside from the consistent drumming rain and the sinister panthers, the atmosphere weighed down on his shoulders. His clothes were torn, turquoise earrings missing, and a bloody gash cut into his forehead.  
  
With no warning, one of the wild creatures leapt at him from behind. Blind, searing pain streaked up his legs. Dark, crimson blood rushed from a deep bite mark in his calf, the limp grass quickly becoming coated with the fluid.  
  
Stumbling a few, wavering steps, he collapsed to the ground, closing his eyes peacefully as he awaited the final, ripping bite at his throat.   
  
It never came.  
  
Something bright and silver in the heavy downpour whipped through the air, felling one beast bunching the muscles in its legs and striking another unconscious. Before he himself passed out, he vaguely wondered on the irony of it all-kick on evil advisor's butt, another one stabs you in the back.  
  
  
  
Chel snarled at the panthers, sparing them no mercy until they reluctantly, smoldering with anger, backed off, disappearing into the tall grass and the thick mist. Tossing the broken sword to the earth with disgust, she knelt on one knee beside the still body of the young man. Sighing, she touched the side of his neck, ignoring the tingle bubbling along her nerves, cocking her head to one side. A pulse. Good. Hooking her arms under his body and, with a grunt, lifting him up, Chel took a testy step with one sturdy leg. He was light, enough so that she could carry him with easy. Almost unhealthy light…  
  
Trudging carefully back to the homey lights of the hut, the warm fluids of the large, dangerous wound in his leg staining her bare arms dark red, Chel tilted her face toward the dark clouds, the rain swiftly and harshly pounding on her face. "You," she shifted him as he moaned softly, "better be able to help around the hut, or I'll leave you outside the next time the panthers come calling." Lapsing into silence, she remained so up to the point where she kicked the hut's door loudly.   
  
Llana cracked the door open, then opened it enough to allow her older sister and her burden in. "Are you okay, Chel?" she questioned nervously, eyes flickering to the clotted amount of rain-diluted blood on the young woman's arm. "He's the one you should be asking that of," was the reply.  
  
Setting the body onto the floor with an audible grunt, Chel cracked her knuckles, stepping aside as her more efficient, calm sister began tending to the two injuries he sported. Wrapping bandages around his slender leg, tightly binding it with salve and cloth, Llana worked rapidly and firmly, stopping the blood flow before it got worse.   
  
"There." Leaning back on her heels, Llana nodded briskly. "Chel, take him to my room. I'll be sleeping in your room until he's better." Chel smiled briefly at her younger sibling's youthful confidence.   
  
Before she could follow instructions, however, Llana interrupted. "Wait a second-where's your blade?"  
  
Chel half-grinned. "Broke half of it off in a panther's side," she responded cockily. Llana sighed and hung her head dramatically.   
  
  
  
  
Kuzco woke with a start. Sitting up straight, then wincing and slowly falling back. "Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow."   
  
"'Bout time you woke up, sunshine-and-roses." The voice was female, but with a confidence women, discounting Chicha, lacked. Standing above him was the single most intimidating woman he had ever seen. Again, discounting Chicha. Black hair shorn unevenly short with inky black eyes were the sole decorations on her face.  
  
Abruptly, the young woman sat at the foot of the bed. "Since I can't call you sunshine-and-roses all the time, what's your name and where're you from?" she asked, tone friendly, but stern.  
  
He tried to say 'Kuzco' and 'my Palace,' but the first came out twisted.  
  
"Kazoo?" Chel gasped between laughs, raising an eyebrow. "So, you worked in the palace?" she continued, stopping her flow of snickers and giggles, though still holding a laughing look to her face. Grumbling under his breath, he plastered a false smile on his face and gritted out a 'yes.'   
  
"Okay." The young woman turned and stood up, grabbing a few articles of clothing. "If you're going to be staying here-the Palace is waaaaaaay beyond walking range and our village doesn't have any way to take you back-then you'll need better clothes…and you'll work as soon as your leg and head are better."  
  
He shot up, then flinched and sank back down. "Work?" His voice sounded whiny and desperate even to him. She looked over her shoulder and smirked. "Yes, work. My name's Chel, by the way. My sister, Llana, bandaged you up," she answered kindly, tossing the robes and length of corded rope at him. Catching it, he glanced down despairingly at them. Though they did look rather nicely woven…and the pattern wasn't half-bad.   
  
"Um…thanks," he mumbled. She gave him a lopsided smile. "You're welcome, Kazz. Now sleep."  
  
  
  
Lashing the beam tightly with rope, Chel ground her teeth together as she pulled up the broken piece of fence with a mighty heave. Quickly, she tied the rope to another post, intricately looping it around both lengths of wood, then knotting the ends and wedging, with effort, the logical tangle between the rounded boards. Tossing her head and lifting one of her sandaled feet, squarely placing it on the newly repaired fence, she pushed with her leg and pulled at the top of the wood with her strong hands. The wood groaned, then splintered and broke under the pressure. Exasperated, she grasped the rope and swiftly untied the know, unwinding it.  
  
"Need some help?"  
  
Tilting her face back, she grinned at the now-familiar appearance of 'Kazoo' and his makeshift crutch tucked under one arm, hobbling towards her. "Yeah. The fence is harder to mend than I thought."  
  
Kuzco placed the crutch on the ground with not much affection, gingerly lowering himself onto his knees. Examining the ground where the fence posts had been twisted in, he hit upon the answer.  
  
Literally.  
  
Rubbing the scar on his forehead, he tried to recover what part of his dignity remained. How was he supposed to know his knee would slip? And that the fence post would handily be *right* there?   
  
"Think I've found your prob, babe."  
  
"Pardon?"  
  
"Chel. No support down here. What'd you do, just shove the thing into the ground without packing dirt around it?" Looking up, he judged by the redness of her face and the unusual sheepish look that the answer was no. "Well, then, fix it," he ordered.  
  
A moment of silence passed as Chel raised her eyebrow, shrugged and dropped to one knee, placing her hand on his shoulder as she leaned to get a good look.  
  
"No touching!"  
  
Ripping her hand off his shoulder, she shot him a strange look before grabbing his hands and shoving them into the soil. With a yell, he yanked his hands out and glared at her. "What are you trying to do, babe? Remember the three rules: no touching, no work-"  
  
"No food?" she suggested, laughter underlining her voice and he squirmed.   
  
"Okay, point taken, ba-…" His voice trailed off at her how-about-I-kill-you stare and he hastily corrected, "Point taken, Chel. So…" With a disgusted look, he plunged his hands into the moist earth, pressing it into a firmer shape around the wood. Chel smiled briefly, then dug her own hands under, reinforcing the mold he was forming.  
  
After a moment's work, followed by a moment's contemplation, Kuzco grinned devilishly. "Oh, yeah," he smirked smugly and Chel dug her elbow into his rib cage.   
  
"No touching!"  
  
Throwing her head back, Chel laughed freely, slapping his back purposefully.   
  
"Kazz, I think I'm beginning to like you!" she chuckled, rubbing his head in a friendly gesture. Sighing ruefully, Kuzco decided to let the 'no touching rule' slide for once.   
  
"Let's go in before Llana sends out a search party."   
  
"Think they'd bring some food? I am *starved*."  
  
'You know how to cook?"  
  
"Nuh-UH, babe."  
  
"I know three-thousand ways to break your nose. Don't push me."  
  
"Careful. You'll throw off my groove."  
  
"Sure. Poke."  
  
"NO TOUCHING!!!!!!"  
  
  
  
Jzni clucked his tongue sadly, walking torturously slow before his many prisoners. Guards glared, servants shivered, wannabe-empresses stared, that reeeeeeeally annoying kid with a lollipop continued that infernal licking-and/or-slurping, and the chef-Kronk, he believed was his name-seemed to be pondering.  
  
Jzni mulled over that idea. No, the guy was too dense to be 'pondering' in any way. Having decided this, the man paraded up to the throne, seating himself in it and snickering evilly and with a high-pitched nasal sound.  
  
A mass shudder swept through the room at the annoying noise.  
  
Whilst the evil advisor-turned-emperor began predictably rambling about his greatness and the beauty of his diabolical schemes, a squirrel snuck in unnoticed, scampering silently across the marble floor in a beeline for Kronk.  
  
His eyes lighting up, Kronk engaged the furry animal in a quiet conversation.   
  
"Squeakity squeakee squeak squeakum squeak?" the man mumbled and the squirrel nodded quickly.   
  
"Ah, squeakitt squeak squea!" Kronk continued and the squirrel nodded again, racing behind Kronk, gnawing quickly through the thick ropes binding his ankles to his wrists.   
  
  
  
End AN: And that was Chapter One. Not likely I'll continue…unless I get at least ONE review!! That's all I want…one review…*lower lips trembles* I *know* it was short…most of my stories/chapters *are* short. I'm working on a strange story called "Dear Kronk" in which Kronk takes on a "Dear Abby"-like job and must deal with weird questions and/or topics…like how to fend off two certain rabid fans who want to torture Yzma and kiss Kronk…(not mentioning names….*cough* *cough* SpazSailor *cough* *cough* and *cough* *cough* me *cough* *cough*) Probably won't write it. *&.^* Okay, this is the Kuzco-and-Kronk-loving writer, PallaPlease, signing off!  
  
PS. Read/review/weep/flame. Ja ne! 


	2. Part Two | Kids and an Evil Guy

AN: Helloooo!!! (Ashley-chan: my friend is called "SpazSailor" not SailorSpaz, to answer your question. I know SpazS. in real life-we go to school together.) The not-so-long-awaited Chapter 2! Yay. Alright, I still don't own Kuzco, Kronk, or any other characters from the ENG movie. I do, however, own Llana, Chel, Jzni, and any other characters you can't recall seeing in the movie. *&.^*   
  
(Real quick-I saw ENG again! Saw it on 12/16/00, and yesterday, 1/04/01! Yay!)  
  
('Nother Real Quick Thing: To person who left no name in their review = the spinach puffs-comment at the beginning was a reference to Yzma's harsh insult about them, which made poor Kronk sad….*sniffles*)   
  
*  
Never Said Love  
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Part 2  
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Kids and an Evil Guy  
*  
  
The sun burned over the horizon, the fiery hues lovely and welcomed by all…except for one.  
  
"Kazooooooo! Get your lazy rear in gear!"  
  
Kuzco threw an arm over his face and whined, pitifully, "But I wanna sle~ep!" When there was no reply, he smiled contentedly.  
  
And then Chel threw the bedroom door open.  
  
Tossing a red poncho and white breeches at him, she unshuttered the window and gave him a very evil look. Swallowing quickly, he smiled weakly and motioned for her to leave. Soundlessly, she did so.  
  
Promptly, he fell back to sleep.  
  
The process repeated itself.  
  
  
  
"So, WHY are we going all the way DOWN the hill?"  
  
Llana smiled sweetly, patting Kuzco's back, earning herself a "NO TOUCHING!" and a snort from Chel suspiciously similar to laughter. The group of three were walking quickly down a trodden dirt-path, Chel leading the way with a staff and Llana explaining dutifully what their mission was.  
  
"Every week, Linyk has to visit the doctor-man 'cause he's her father and we repair her house, watch her kids, and make sure she's got all her medicines in alphabetical order."  
  
Eyebrows were raised.  
  
"Why alphabetical order?"  
  
"Oh, I like alphabetizing things," Llana replied cheerfully, her face oblivious and carefree. Another suspicious snort came from Chel, who had dropped her pace a bit. "Since Llana's a perfectionist for medicinal objects, and I do all the physical labor…you get the kids," the smaller of the two girls stage-whispered as they stopped in front of a modest hut at the bottom of the hill and Kuzco made an 'ah' sound.  
  
"What are the kids like, anywaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Five little girls poured out of the hut, swarming around the trio, chattering excitedly.  
  
The shortest, a girl only three years of age, stared up in awe at the tall young man, fingertip resting on her lower lip. "That's Kika," Llana informed 'Kazoo' affectionately, tussling the girl's soft black hair. Kika smiled broadly, still silent, but obviously happy to meet him. Another one of the girls, about seven and looking very snobbish, eyed him critically.   
  
"He seems to be unused to physical exertion and thusly is not a suitable playmate," she sniffed, tossing her long, raven-dark hair. Kika gave her older sister a mean look, then hugged Kuzco about his shins happily. "And that's Zecha," Chel sighed, rolling her eyes in an exasperated manner Kuzco hadn't seen before.   
  
A tall, stressed woman emerged from the bowels of the door, scolding the yelling, chattering children. The three-year old hugging Kuzco switched her attention to her mother, eyes large and innocent. "Chel, Llana…whoever you are…I'm taking three of the girls with me, after the last incident-" Kuzco got a strange feeling that 'fiasco' was a better term; "I think that leaving only Kika and Zecha with you would be wisest."  
  
Inwardly, he exhaled in relief as three of the girls-unfortunately not including the brat with her nose literally stuck up in the air-groaned and made sad sounds, reluctantly following Linyk up the path. Immediately, Zecha examined Kuzco again whilst Llana and Chel discreetly made their get-away.  
  
Kika wasn't going to be a problem…Zecha was.  
  
  
  
"How is my plan going?" a high-pitched voice hissed and Jzni smirked with pride.   
  
"Perfectly. All witnesses to the…*unfortunate*…beating and removal of Kuzco are tied up and awaiting death. They're in the dungeon as I speak."   
  
"Exxxxcellent…," the voice purred and a tiny kitten with blue-purple fur and slitted eyes slunk out of the shadows. "Everything is going perrrrfectly." Jzni began obediently chortling. Shooting him a disgusted glare, Yzma growled, "That wasn't a joke, you fool." He instantly stopped laughing, ears turning red with embarrassment. Rolling her eyes in disgust, Yzma momentarily missed the slightly-smarter Kronk. Momentarily.  
  
Speaking of Kronk…  
  
  
  
"So, you're saying Kuzco's new advisor is actually following Yzma Cat's orders, she had him use a bribed guard to knock him out, they took him out far, far into the jungle and dumped him off there, and now Yzma's going to make a potion using a strand of Kuzco's hair that will make Jzni look like the emperor?"   
  
Bucky thought for a moment, then nodded vigorously. Kronk made a thoughtful noise, rubbing his chin with an oven mitt-covered hand.   
  
Squeaking energetically and with great fervor, the small squirrel made hand motions to accompany his 'words' from his perch on top of the muscular man's head. "You think we should find the emperor?"  
  
Bucky clucked a yes.   
  
"Oooookay, then, off we go."  
  
Squeak-squeak squeakity squeaker squeaken.  
  
"Riiiiiight. Find out where they took him first."  
  
Pause.  
  
"Or we could just go look at a random village and hope the plot device works out in our favor," suggested Kronk. Bucky pondered this, then shrugged his tiny shoulders.  
  
  
  
"Therefore, it is my personal belief that any and all empires existing today will fall before a more-democratic oriented world in the far or near future. In that strain of thought, we should find our current political reign both obsolete and insecure in the event that a democratic country should perchance spring up within our own beloved land," Zecha finished dramatically, waiting expectantly for comments from her 'babysitter.'  
  
"Um…you lost me somewhere around the financial crisis thing-a-ma-bobber," Kuzco meekly broke the silence.  
  
Grumbling, Zecha rolled up her carefully drawn charts and gathered up her precious notes, opening the floor-cabinet and placing all her materials inside. Kika, from where she was playing with Kuzco's hair, sitting on his back since he was lying on the floor, looked up and announced, "Pretty."   
  
"What's pretty?" Zecha deadpanned brattily and Kika patiently slid off the young man's back, toddling over to a spot on the floor where sunlight had mixed with the red and gold paint. "Pretty," she giggled, leaning over and patting the sun splashed tiles with a chubby toddler's hand.  
  
Zecha rolled her eyes and sat down, crossing her arms in a huff. "Kawoo," Kika started, smiling innocently, "You see pretty?"  
  
Kuzco shrugged and pulled himself up to his feet, walking over to the small child. Beaming, she traced unseen lines, proclaiming, "Butterwing."   
  
"Butterfly," he corrected.  
  
"Spitface," Kika snickered happily.  
  
"Llama," he reprimanded calmly.  
  
Zecha, looking out the window, interrupted the childish game with a stomp of her foot in the center of the titles. Glaring at the girl, Kuzco warned, "Careful, you'll throw off my groove."   
  
"Mama's home."  
  
Kika 'yay'ed and clapped her hands, holding up her arms to Kuzco. "Lift Kika?" she plead, eyes getting huge and watery as her lower lip trembled. Muttering, he stooped and pulled her up.  
  
  
  
"Well…," Linyk smiled at her oldest daughter and the one she held in her arms. "How was it?"  
  
"He's incompetent, but cute," Zecha declared with a haughty sniff. Kika laughed and hugged her mother's neck.   
  
"Kawoo funny! Say 'no tuffy' to Zek and play pretty with Kika."  
  
  
  
End AN: It was pointless, senseless, short, and strange. Get used to it! *&.^* Anyway, my brother wanted me to write something in which Kuzco had to baby-sit two little girls. Originally, he was going to watch over all *five* of Linyk's daughters, but that was too cruel a punishment to impart upon the poor, defenseless emperor. Next part will have more Jzni foolery, Kronk and Bucky on their way to save Kuzco-while fighting a troop of Jzni's mercenaries, Kuzco adapting to farm life-with no help from the reckless Chel, and Yzma…doing whatever Yzma does.   
  
Note: Hey, I got FIVE reviews for Part 1! COOL!! You guys rule! Again, I want only one review…helps keep up the teenage moral, you know.  
  
Ja ne!  
PallaPlease. 


	3. Part Three | Too Much...Mercy...

AN: Thought you were rid of my fanfics, didn't you? You wish. (Note to Ang D: HECK, yeah! I'd LOVE to have it linked to Kuzcotopia! I love that site! [No, seriously. Nice website.]) I'm trying to fulfill what I promised I'd write in this part….oi….  
  
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Never Said Love  
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Part 3  
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Too Much…Mercy…  
*  
  
Stomping through the halls, past her bewildered sister, Chel muttered obscenities under her breath as she threw open Kuzco's door. "KAZOO!!!" He glared at her from where he was sitting, fully dressed, but resisting the little everyday farm thing known affectionately as…'work.'   
  
"I'm not going."  
  
"Yes, you are."  
  
"Not."  
  
"Are."  
  
"Not."  
  
"Are."  
  
"Not!"  
  
"Are!"  
  
"NOTNOTNOTNOTNOT!"  
  
"AREAREAREAREARE!"   
  
Many, many minutes later…  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!!!"  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAARE!!!!!!!!!"  
  
  
  
The jungle lay silent and deadly, a million and one traps awaiting Kronk and Bucky, a chef and a squirrel. Fortunately, the former had a conscience and the latter a tactical brain.   
  
"Where are we?" Kronk asked, ducking under a large branch dangerously close to his head. Bucky thought for a moment.  
  
"Whaddaya mean, you don't know?!" Kronk raised his voice.   
  
"Squeaker squeak!" Bucky protested, stabbing a finger at the man.  
  
"Good point. I don't either."  
  
Without any warning, a bush was torn apart behind the two by a glistening, deadly curved blade, wielded by a tall, slender figure dressed in green with a black mask. From around Kronk and his companion came five more, each identical to the first. Swallowing thickly, Kronk backed up until the leader-the first mercenary-prodded him with his blade, calmly saying, "Boo."  
  
  
  
Pacing down the marbled hallways of the regal palace, Jzni nervously bit at his nails as Yzma screamed angrily.   
  
"I CAN NOT BUH-LIEVE YOU WERE UNABLE TO KEEP A *SQUIRREL* FROM FREEING, of all people, KRONK! THE ROYAL CHEF!"   
  
Jzni timidly raised a hand. "Um, your putridness, he's-"  
  
"He's only a chef?" the 'kitten' finished for him, tone sarcastic. "He is NOT as incompetent as you think! A bit ignorant and blind, but he spoiled my plans last time! He won't now!"  
  
"Oh, then it's definitely a good thing I have mercenaries combing the jungle for anyone who might've found out something," Jzni mused.  
  
There was a moment of stunned silence.  
  
"I think your IQ jumped a few notches," Yzma told him suspiciously.  
  
  
  
  
"No, no, no. For the last time, bury the seeds in the field like *this*, Kazoo," Llana said patiently, motioning the quick, fluid movements of many years of practice, her long black hair cascading around her face. Kuzco sighed, then complied clumsily, the dirt slipping from between his fingers.   
  
"Cup your hands, Kazz." Looking up, he saw Chel standing over him, the serious expression back on her face, making her appear older than she really was. "Don't hold them open like that, use common sense."  
  
"Apparently, he never got that," replied Llana wryly and the two sisters laughed as Kuzco gave them an imperial look of righteous anger. Testing her new blade, a replacement for the one she broke saving him, Chel flipped dirt up, lightly spraying pebbles and fine soil on his shoulder-length black hair, her own short black hair dirty and curling around her ears.   
  
"If it wasn't for Jzni being out to kill me," he muttered, furiously scooping up the brown earth and patting it around a tiny seed. An idea struck him and he paused as Chel and Llana shared a confused look at his words. 'This little seed is depending on ME to live…,' he thought, amazed and a sudden perspective on the world exploded into being around him.  
  
Then he got dizzy.  
  
Cool metal pressed against his forehead and he sighed in relief, thanking Chel. Wait a minute-cold metal? With a yelp, he launched himself backwards, staring at the brave young woman with mixed emotions-horror prominent.   
  
"That was your SWORD!"   
  
"Did I cut you?"  
  
"….No."  
  
"Then was it so bad?"   
  
"I *hate* you."  
  
"Isn't he a sweetie, Llana?"  
  
Her younger sister bit her lower lip to keep a smile from spreading and she nodded, quickly covering another seed. Kuzco glared at Chel's back for a moment, then returned to his own 'duty' with a renewed interest.   
  
Which, though still living in a way, soon became bored.  
  
  
  
Kronk avoided the first arrow to whistle in his direction, Bucky leaping into the trees and, with a high-pitched war cry, leapt back down, clawing at the eyes of one of the mercenaries, effectively removing him from the battle. The leader called out in a harsh, guttural language and more arrows shot from two of the mercenaries' bows, one piercing Kronk's leg. The one Bucky was clinging to dropped his curved blade with a pained scream, the squirrel gnawing with his large teeth at the warrior's soft face.   
  
A plan formed itself hastily in the muscular man's head, sending him skidding between two blade-wielding soldiers, scooping up the discarded sword. Grinding his feet to the ground and leaning forward, blade held in front of him at an angle and eyes narrowed, Kronk felt memories of training as a guard surfacing, falling back into place comfortably.  
And then he went for the leader, a viciously cold face taking over where Kronk's gentle looks had once been…  
  
  
  
End AN: Yes, another short chapter. But I gave everything I promised! And, coming soon to a fanfiction category near you, "Dear Kronk" will answer any queries you, the reader, wish to know. Or maybe he'll just answer questions sent in by nonliving characters! I'm not sure. Okay, the promise for the NEXT part is thus:  
  
Yzma and Jzni will have more than ¼ of a page dedicated to their evil plotting, a mercenary soldier hired by Jzni will appear on Llana and Chel's farm to track down and kill 'Kazoo', Kika is kidnapped by another mercenary, Tipo and Chaca find a bleeding Kronk-after Pacha gets a post from a distressed cousin-one Linyk, who's youngest daughter is gone…  
  
So…one review! As per norm! (And thanksies to EVERYONE who was nice enough to review Part 2! I recommend reading everything else in the "The Emperor's New Groove" category, for fun, laughter, and romance! Okay, maybe not as much romance as the other two, but we'll work on that…) 


	4. Part Four | Shattered Tranquility

AN: I didn't waste any time, did I? Nope, I didn't. This one is a bit darker than Parts 2 and 3. Think Part 1 dark. *&.&* But it's not pain dark like Part 1, it's more emotional dark (like I promised, Kika gets kidnapped, Kronk is bleeding and unconscious when Tipo an' Chaca find 'im, and Kuzco & Co. get attacked) instead. I've tried to make this longer than the previous three, but no promises…that has to wait for the preview-thing-a-ma-bobber! Also, Ang D has labeled Pacha's infant son Roca, but since I have no clue whether or not that's his actual name, I'm making one up. *&.^* So, he's dubbed Sukyu in my fanfics. Okay, see ya!  
  
*  
Never Said Love  
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Part 4  
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Shattered Tranquility  
*  
  
A plan formed itself hastily in the muscular man's head, sending him skidding between two blade-wielding soldiers, scooping up the discarded sword. Grinding his feet to the ground and leaning forward, blade held in front of him at an angle and eyes narrowed, Kronk felt memories of training as a guard surfacing, falling back into place comfortably. And then he went for the leader, a viciously cold face taking over where Kronk's gentle looks had once been…  
  
Tipo laughed, running from his older sister, their mother, Chicha, not far behind. "Be careful!" she warned and Tipo nodded even though she couldn't see him, still racing after Chaca as he was. The pigtails of his older sister bobbed tantalizingly in front of him, just far enough away that he could *almost* grab them, but they dangled just out of reach.  
  
Chaca suddenly stopped, pulling to an abrupt halt, and she grabbed Tipo by his jerkin.   
  
"T-Tipo…look."   
  
Twin screams shattered the silence and Chicha snapped her head up from laying out a picnic spread and she grasped her ever-handy frying pan, comforting the wailing Sukyu as she charged into the jungle, following her children's visible trail. When she found them, she saw why they had screamed. Chaca was crying, her tears wetting her sleeve which she was using to wipe off the bloody face of…Kronk…Tipo chattering fluently and anxiously with the squirrel their mother recognized as being Bucky.   
  
"Is he okay, Mom?" Chaca asked, tears glistening.   
  
"I don't know, baby," replied Chicha, worry knitting her brow and Chaca started sobbing. Finally, the efficient, military-leader Chicha reemerged. "Tipo, get Bucky to tell you everything that happened. Chaca, I need you to design a way to carry Kronk back and list any supplies we can use in the jungle.  
  
'Pacha, hurry,' she thought desperately.   
  
  
  
Laughing quietly, Llana brushed the hairs of the smallest llama, Brooke, with a rough brush, the animal enjoying herself as she chewed on the grass. The many breathtaking shades of dusk lent a homey atmosphere to the quaint farm and the hill they lived on. Huts cluttered the hill below the leveled-off top, where the farm was situated, the only children in the village being Linyk's daughters and a small boy of four years living with his grandparents. These moments she had alone with the mammals her parents semi-named for brought back joyous memories of her loving parents and older brother from before the sickness swept through the village, ending the lives of many citizens. Sighing, she patted Brooke's nose, relishing the comfortably lazy look the llama gave her.  
  
She could hear Kuzco and Chel trying to make dinner, thick trails of smoke dotting the frequent fires obviously coming forth from the oven. Turning to go back and save the already doomed meal, she froze. That noise…  
  
One little piece of wood had snapped off the fence at the far end of the field, a quiet sound that was explosive in the tranquility. The air suddenly became oppressive and weighty, the silence deafening. Slowly moving around, the only things moving being her feet and her chest as her breathing and heartbeat quickened. A man dressed in green with a black mask and hood was unsheathing a blade and running briskly toward her.  
  
A scream tore from her throat and Llana broke into a dead run, heart hammering in her chest as she raced up to the hut's door. Slamming a fist into the wood, 'Kazoo' opened it with a cheerful, welcoming smile. But it fled from his face when he saw her terrified expression.   
  
"There's..a…man with a…sword…in the llama pen!" she gasped out and she heard a 'zing' sound, Chel ripping her frightening blade from a wood notch-holder in the wall.   
  
Kuzco thought swiftly. "Llana, go out the back entrance and make sure everyone in the village is safe. Tell them to lock their doors. Stay with Linyk and help with her kids. Chel and I will confront Mister Sword."  
  
Whistling low, Chel clapped him on the back, and chuckled. "Well, you're learning a few things," she admitted before nodding curtly, sending Llana skittering out the back door.  
  
"Now let's fight," she added grimly.   
  
  
  
Nimbly, he leapt from the branches of a young tree, landing soundlessly in the yard. A small child, a girl with shimmering black hair and wide black eyes, looked up from drawing childish sketches in the dirt. Looked up and stared right at him.  
  
Fear in her eyes.  
  
"Mama, there's an intruder in the yard!"  
  
Another. He whipped his head around to see an older girl, though still a child. Quickly and efficiently, he streaked like a lightning bolt beside the older girl, smashing the hilt of his blade to the side of her skull, effectively knocking her out. The smaller one began screaming, yelling incomprehensibly.   
  
He scooped the child up, vanishing into the shadows as a woman, their mother, and three other little girls poured out of the house, crowding around the felled one.  
  
Without a word, he departed for the cart-train he and his 'brothers' would use to return to the palace, his burden silenced by fear.  
  
  
  
"Hey! Big, ugly, and fashion-deprived!"  
  
The mercenary glanced coldly up at a waving Kuzco standing a hundred feet away, then grinned.   
  
"Fool!" he sneered, preparing to attack the emperor.  
  
"No, you're the fool," the slender man rolled his eyes.  
  
A blinding pain struck the soldier square in the small of his back. With a pained grunt, he collapsed to the ground. Rolling, barely missed by a razor sharp blade wielded by a short young woman with, he snatched a dirk from his boot, catching her on her ankle. Hissing, Chel drew back, a line of blood dripping from a cut along her ankle and tendon.   
  
"Hey, buddy, this is private property," she growled, kicking him firmly between his legs and snagging the dirk from his hands with the tip of her blade, sending it spiraling toward Kuzco, who caught it reflexively.  
  
"You almost got my eye!" he complained, wisely closing his mouth when she raised an eyebrow.   
  
"Help me tie this guy up," she ordered, spitting at him.  
  
  
  
Llana waved to the elderly woman, jogging half-frantically to Linyk's house.  
  
"Oh, my baby!" Linyk came running up the beaten path, grabbing Llana by her upper arms, nails digging into the younger woman's skin.   
  
"Please," she sobbed, "My baby, Kika, she's gone…Zecha's bleeding from her forehead and I can't find Kika!"  
  
Heart thudding, pounding loudly in Llana's ears, she followed the distressed mother.  
  
  
  
The village was in sorrow the next morning.  
  
  
  
End AN: ….eek. Did I write that? 0.0 Okay, expect the Kika-kidnap-Kronk-injured-thing to play a major role. There wasn't any Yzma and Jzni plotting stuff in this one. Part 5 might be…weird. Whatever. Anyway, I'm sorry this is so short. I am reeeeeeeally trying to write a longer one. Anybody got suggestions for Pt. 5 or the fanfic in general? ???  
  
PallaPlease. 


	5. Part Five | In Which Kuzco and Chel Argu...

AN: This is short. This is pointless. But, by God, I'm finally back! Blame the TENG CD I bought on Saturday at the Target in Lubbock, TX. *grins* I've already listened to "One Day She'll Love Me" fifteen times in a row and marveled at how the song eerily FITS the relationship of Kuzco and Chel I've had planned out. (I already know how this fic's gonna end…actually, I've had the idea since I started this endeavor. *sweatdrops*)  
  
One review is all I ask for! (Though more than one is ALWAYS welcomed! *huge, cheesy grin*)  
  
Oh, nooooooo!!! *covers face in shame* You've`  
  
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Never Said Love  
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Part 5  
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In Which Kuzco and Chel Argue and Thusly Bond (Weird, Huh?)  
*  
  
Blade glinting sinisterly in the moonlight, Chel propped one foot up on the captured mercenary's knee, smiling wanly and darkly at him. Tipping his chin up with her sword, she nicked his chin, drawing a few droplets of blood.  
  
The man, silent though his mask had been removed (revealing him to be a scowling young man, handsome), could feel a razor sharp point painfully digging into the back of his scalp, the dirk still in the hands of the furious Kuzco. Smiling coldly as the young woman, Chel he believed to be her name, threw an order at the one she called 'Kazoo'.  
  
The emperor muttered darkly and buried the dirk's hilt in the ground as he turned to reenter the llama pen.  
  
Chel turned her attention to the mercenary.  
  
She grinned and he wished the gods would just get it over with and strike him with lightning or something.   
  
"You don't have to talk," she began sweetly, "because I noticed you and your little friends left tracks." She paused and tossed her blade to the side, ripping some cloth off of her tunic, stuffing it into the man's mouth firmly, effectively gagging him. "If you're lucky, I won't kill you."  
  
He glared.  
  
She glared.  
  
He whimpered.  
  
  
  
"WHAT?!" 'Kazoo' yelped, looking peeved as Chel calmly plucked a green blanket off the pile he had taken from the hut. The llamas he had been sent to get were tied to a tree. "I thought you said it was too far to the palace!"  
  
Chel cast him a withering glance. "This is a matter of a child being kidnapped. You're a grown man and it wasn't as if you were kidnapped."  
  
"I was!" he whined and she turned away, ignoring him.  
  
"Hey!" Kuzco cried, waving the reins of his llama hither, thither, and, yes, yon, "Liar!"  
  
Chel paused, and the dark green blanket missed her own llama's back, landing to the ground with a muffled sound rather like a broken sigh. "Repeat that," she hissed, black eyes narrowing as she drew her blade from the rope tied about her waist, "Kazoo, I order you to repeat that!"  
  
"You ordering me?" he asked, voice ringing with sharp disbelief while he drew himself up to his full, gangly height, trying his hardest to appear intimidating - a very hard thing, indeed, to accomplish around Chel. "Do you have any idea who I am, you ignorant woman?!"  
  
She exploded, dropping her blade and lunging at him, bowling the startled man over on his back. "Damn you!" she snarled, straddling his chest and smashing the heel of her palm into his face wildly. "I *trusted* you! I thought you were *better* than other men! And I don't care who you are - for all I know or care, you could be the gods forsaken emperor! - or where you lived, you. Are. An. Arrogant. *MAN*!!! And that is all you'll ever be!" She screamed the last part and the tied-and-gagged mercenary watched in interest as Kuzco narrowed *his* eyes and sat up swiftly, pinning Chel - another hard thing to accomplish.  
  
"You're cruel!" he snapped and she flipped him up behind her with a calloused bare foot.  
  
"You're a jerk!" she snapped - he replied by simply sticking his tongue out and tackling her.  
  
"You're both nuts," added Llana, having just arrived. "Now, if you two are done with attempting to murder each other, let's get these llamas geared up." Her eyes flickered over to the captive mercenary. "Who's he?"  
  
"Dunno," Chel shrugged, wriggling out from under Kuzco, absently tousling his straight jet-hair, "but he tried to kill Kazz here. Said we didn't know who he was." She paused, grasping Kuzco's shoulder and hoisting him up easily. "And Kazz himself just asked me if I knew who he wa-"  
  
"Say!" he quickly threw in, "What are we gonna do with tall, dark, and gruesome?"  
  
Llana, who was putting the pieces together in her mind, frowned and said nothing, whereas her husky sister lost no time in saying, "Leave him!"  
  
The black-garbed soldier smiled grimly and made an elaborate show of lying down - on Kuzco's discarded knife, hilt in the ground.  
  
"Don't!" Llana yelled, face paling even as she realized she was too late.  
  
Chel grimly picked up the green blanket and secured it over her agitated llama's back. "We need to go," she spoke briskly, pausing and awkwardly placing her hands on a stunned Kuzco's shoulders.  
  
"I've never seen a man die," he said numbly, "much less kill himself…"  
  
Chel only sighed and reluctantly mumbled something as an answer. "Sorry about earlier…"  
  
He blinked. Did Chel just…?   
  
She pulled away abruptly and motioned for him to get on the llama. Noting his glance at the limp body of the mercenary, she shook her head. "There's nothing we can do about him, Kazz," she sighed again, "All we can do is get back Kika."  
  
He nodded mutely.  
  
Dead…  
  
  
  
End AN: HA! That's it for this chapter! Don't worry, loyal ones, I've got ideas for chapters six and seven already. *winks* Actually, this one scene in chapter seven's been bopping about my head for a month now…see, for some reason, I had a dream (what?) and the dream got altered in my head after I woke up so it would fit into this fic…oi.  
  
The scene in which Kuzco and Chel argue was written last Saturday, May 26, 2001, in Lubbock, Texas, at Berl Huffman Park 'cause of my brother's soccer tournament (how come my soccer teams never go to Lubbock?). As soon as I put my notebook-of-various-fanfics-and-drawings away, it started raining. Yay! I love rain!  
  
Yes, this was a short chapter. It was written mainly to help explain that Kuzco and Chel are NOT like your now-average Disney couple - ie, not even friends but still end up in love. It might be hard to see at times, but these two are friends in that they try to help each other even after they bicker with or make fun of each other. 'Kay? Good!  
  
I'm off to read the next installment of Ang D's TENG ficcie! Bai bai! 


	6. Part 6 | Motives, Flashbacks, and Friend...

AN: Wow! I'm posting quickly, aren't I? *lol* Anyway, this focuses a lot on developing the character Jzni and revealing hidden motives of Yzma (if you've got the TENG CD and have heard her song "Snuff Out the Light", you'll get an idea) as well as defining Chel's friendship (maybe more?) with Kuzco (and he reflects on his views on the girls). There even might be some stuff helping sand the edges of Llana's foggy personality! Gee, if only…  
  
*  
Never Said Love  
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Part Six  
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Motives, Flashbacks, and Friends - Not Necessarily In That Order  
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Jzni leaned against the windowsill, propping his face up with his elbows as he stared unseeingly out at the folding jungles outside the palace. The moon shone gently, mystically and he smiled to himself. The moon was lovely. His smile hardened. The sun he hated, the sun he cursed…  
  
Kuzco's emblem was the sun, whereas his father's had been the panther.  
  
Their father's emblem.  
  
He could remember…  
  
(((His mother touched his face gently and he felt tears idle down her cheeks: thick, fat, silver tears. Jzni couldn't understand it…he just wanted to go back inside the grand palace, back inside with his half-brother.  
  
"Kuu-oh!" he wailed, crying in the talk of an infant for his comforting twin. Kuzco and he himself had known Kuzco had a different mother, a woman that wasn't married to Father. "Why go 'way fwom 'ome?" he sniffled, curling up in her arms as she stumbled down the path of the jungle.   
  
Her eyes hardened and, though she still wept silently and bravely, she spat, "That mistress of his, Iutnnola, is preferred over me." Mother fell silent and he sobbed louder.  
  
"Want go 'oooome!!!"  
  
That was the first time she struck him.  
  
"I refuse to be below a bitch, to be a mere birthing tool, in his eyes!" she screamed, dropping him to the jungle floor with a jarring thud, and she struck Jzni once more, bringing blood up to sting his cheek.  
  
A moment passed and she pulled him into a deep hug, whispering in a soothing voice, "It's all right, everything will get better…"  
  
She lied.  
  
Months, years passed and he grew older, bore scars on his body from where, in a fit of rage every now and then, she struck him, lashed him, beat him. Mother drilled it into him that Kuzco was the source of all this, that Jzni was the true heir to the throne. HE was older than the sun-child, HE wasn't a 'bastard,' HE was the moon-child, the chosen one who should govern the land. She trained him, taught him.  
  
And then she died.  
  
He met Yzma returning home to the village, where people knew him, loved him as he was.  
  
A talking kitten of purple promised him the throne, promised him the moon.  
  
Jzni accepted.)))  
  
A tear slipped down his cheek, his chest contracting painfully, throat suddenly squeezing in on itself.  
  
Kuzco hadn't even remembered him.  
  
"I don't want the throne," Jzni whispered to the stars and the rivers and the sleeping people, his voice a lonely breeze dying without a sigh. "I want my brother back…but I can't have that any more, can I?" His voice became bitter. "I never wanted to become my mother!" he cried. Enraged for the moment, he slammed his fist into the wall, felt the skin over his knuckles split and crimson blood spring up. The pain was comforting, soothing. "It's too late now, isn't it?" he asked the moon softly. "And what's done is done…"  
  
What a horrible world, indeed.  
  
  
  
To be young again, Yzma thought to herself, cleaning her paws diligently. Ah, to be young…  
  
Technically, she mused, she *was* young again, but if she were to become human again, escaping this accursed feline body, she would need to be older than a child! This cat was merely a kitten…so, she would need to be *younger* than his previous human body, but *older* than the human body she was on the verge of gaining.  
  
A crafty smirk twitched her lips (lips?). She would simply wait until Jzni 'became' Kuzco, then she would have him send out some of those mercenaries of his to capture the Amethyst of Ages.   
  
She purred and kneaded a now tattered banner-of-the-sun that had once hung as Kuzco's emblem with her unsheathed claws.   
  
What a marvelous world, indeed!  
  
  
  
Kuzco wasn't sure how the two sisters could move at such a fast pace on their llamas, while reading the marks of a broken twig or a snapped spider web for the path *and* hold the reins of the rest of the herd firmly. However, it wasn't as if he was complaining. The sooner they returned to the palace, the sooner he could stop feeling so darn jumpy about his Kazoo identity! Still, he would miss Llana…prefect, gentle, feminine Llana who could be sarcastic as hell when she wanted.  
  
Seemingly of their own accord, his eyes landed on the firm, small back of compactly lithe Chel. Chel, who was as flawed as Llana was unflawed: imperfect, rough, feminist Chel who was blunt and open, though awkward about her softer side…if she *had* a softer side.  
  
By the gods, he was going to *miss* being around them. It wasn't like it was with Pacha and his family, either. They lived close enough he could visit them or they could visit him every other week, at least. With Chel and Llana, it would be once a year at the most…  
  
He very nearly groaned. Why couldn't life be simple, like it was before the whole llama incident?  
  
Absently, he bent over to one side on his llama, rubbing the lengthy pink scar formed on his tan leg.   
  
((("You're welcome, Kazz. Now sleep.")))  
  
((("Oh, I like alphabetizing things.")))  
  
"Chel?" he called out loud, "Llana?"  
  
They twisted around at the same time, both saying, "Yes, Kazoo?"  
  
Kuzco caught a laugh and instead smiled. "Thanks."  
  
He meant it.  
  
  
  
Chel prodded the dying fire with a stick, watching the golden honey flames dance up the thorny, knobbed length of the piece of kindling before she thrust it into the pile of burning wood so it would be devoured by hungry, licking heat. A soft rustling sound warned her of the so-called Kazoo's approach.  
  
He sat down beside her, green tunic and pants folded or fanned out in sections. "Hey," he said.  
  
"Hey," she replied dully, half-smiling for a second.  
  
They were silent and, softly, Kuzco asked, "So…whatcha doing?"  
  
"Fire-gazing," she responded slowly, turning her face to smile directly at him, black eyes reflecting the firelight. "If you look at it, you can see a thousand pictures in the fire."  
  
He quirked an eyebrow and looked hard at the flames. Finally, he sighed ruefully, "All I see is lots of bright light."  
  
She shook her head, laughing quietly so as to let Llana rest peacefully. "My brother, Feripu, used to take Llana and me out in the middle of the night to the fireplace, where he'd have a dwindling fire. He said if you closed your eyes halfway and forgot everything about the world, you could see images in it. See?…There's a panther!"  
  
Squinting, Kuzco laughed, somewhat awed. "There is! Oh, look! There's a man and a woman!"  
  
Chel's laugh was subdued, sad. "Yeah…looks like my parents."  
  
He glanced over at her sharply, but she had stood up and was moving away, grasping a spare wool blanket, throwing it over herself as she curled up into a ball.  
  
Looking back into the fire, he sighed. "You didn't have to make her cry," he informed the flames coldly and then he swept up the pouch of water, dumping it over the fire, extinguishing it.  
  
A wisp of sad, black smoke trickled away slowly and his shadow left for sleep.  
  
  
  
End AN: Hey, wouldja believe it? TWO chapters in one day! Whoa! *laughs happily* And you're getting a third before eleven tonight!   
  
Remember: I'd like reviews a LOT and thanksies to EVERYONE who has!!! Luvya! (Don't worry, I haven't forgotten Kronk.) Ja mata!  
PallaPlease.  



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